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Jul 20

Media Spotlight - Menu Innovator® - Beer: The Go-To Ingredient

Media Spotlight – A monthly review with the freshest culinary insight! All of our spotlights are inspired by Menu Innovator®. For more information on Menu Innovator®, email tlagana@culinarysystems.com.

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Beer: The Go-To Ingredient

It’s impossible to bring you the latest in food trends without talking about beer. It adds a rich, earthy flavor to soups and stews that makes them taste like they've been simmering for hours. Beer will give your favorite dessert that depth and nutty flavor you’ve been trying to achieve. Not to mention, beer as a drink alone will always be in demand.

HopsHops are bright, bitter, earthy, grapefruit-y, resinous or floral in temperament. Although we often equate them with beer alone, they are a creative menu change for chefs looking to redefine the way we think about beer and food. Not convinced? Consider bacon, cured in wort-hop brine, and then smoked over barrel staves. The ash is composed of aged and fresh hops that are dehydrated alongside burned vegetables and then ground together to produce a smoky finish at Brewed Food in Denver.

DessertPastry Chefs look beyond stout for beer-driven desserts. They are picking up on the floral, citrusy, hoppy and malty flavor profiles of India pale ales (IPAs), ales, and other beers. Homey desserts are turned into something new and different. At Runner & Stone in Brooklyn, Peter Endriss serves Tres Leches Cake, with the chocolate portion being made with a craft stout. Butternut squash is brewed with a brown ale along with maple in the milk chocolate anglaise and the cake is topped with chocolate whipped cream with hints of the hoppy, floral notes of a pale ale.

Every beer will pair differently, so it’s best to know the taste differences when developing your menu. Remember, ale is brewed in a way that results in fruity, earthy flavors. Lagers tend to be lighter and drier.